Sunday, May 22, 2011

The Orioles have had a bad week. An embarrassing week. The type of week that makes you question your ability to keep going with this team. After two heartbreaking losses in late innings against the Red Sox and Yankees the Orioles were then on the receiving end of two back-to-back colossal raw shellackings at the hands of the Yankees and Nationals.

The Orioles have given up 10 or more runs four times this year. To give you an idea how much those four games have had an impact on their overall stats, consider this. Currently, according to Baseball Reference, the Orioles are allowing just over five runs a game. In all other games outside of the four 10+ games the Orioles are giving up four runs a game. Those four games account for slightly more than 25% of all the runs that the team has given up all year.

So I guess it hasn't been all that bad.

Another salve for a weary Orioles fan, if you want to call it this. The Orioles once again can't solve the impossible Yankees. So far the Birds are 0-6 against the New Yorkers, meanwhile they are two games over .500 against the rest of baseball. They have found varied and creative ways to lose to the Yankees so far this year. Bullpen meltdowns, extra-inning thrillers, good old fashion trouncing. The bloated zombified corpse of Bartolo Colon has been resurrected through some dark, ancient ritual and is pitching well. The same dark magic has allowed Curtis Granderson to discover those short porches in Yankee Stadium International Airport and he only needs nine more to match his total from all of last year.

Brian Roberts has a concussion, Derrek Lee has a strained oblique, Berken and Gonzalez have been awful, Bergy got destroyed and Tillman has a tender back. Yikes.